The index is a VRML model and you must have a VRML browser installed on your system to use it. To find out more about VRML see 'what is VRML?'. Performance is based on the type of VRML browser that you have. This model makes use of many features found in WebSpace, a Silicon Graphics (SGI) product. Unpredicable behavior may occur in other VRML browsers due to the infancy of the medium and the evolving standards of the VRML 2.0 spec.
The model contains 17 main objects and a few other hidden objects awaiting discovery. Each object is linked to a page (or another model) in my website, just click on any object. In addition there are predefined views which can offer a guided tour of the environment.
It is often difficult to remember how you got to a particular web page after traveling through five or six pages that may or may not be contextually related. A page is not easily associated with a place. But if you associate a page with an object in a model, the information 'sticks' to a place.
The model is an experiment in organizing information three dimensionally. The main principle is that you can remember where you found a piece of information by associating it with a specific place or object. It is not important that the object represent the information, but it should be easily distinguishable from any other object.
It is similar to the process of driving home. You associate home with a specific place. You get there by navigating through a space filled with other objects, some of which act as landmarks, pointing you in the right direction. The first couple of times that you make this journey, you may need assistance from maps or signs, but after a while you can feel your way home without thinking. The same process occurs with the index model. I found it slow at first but after using it for a week or two I began to use it instinctively.
There are three main groups of objects roughly corresponding to the three divisions of nProgress, Research, and Folio although the groups are not so rigidly defined. Color helps define the different objects.
In the future I hope to make the model interactive. The model could be downloaded and the links modified individually.